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Christina Fox's blog

It’s been nearly a month since the Halloween Pumpkin Walk and we’ve all recovered enough to talk about it.

We all did a huge amount of preparation for this, especially Dominic and Fran: there were 150 pumpkins to be carved, plots to be decorated, witches caves to be built, preserves and cakes to be made, the lucky and yucky dips to assemble and lights to put up.

At 3pm, we opened our gates and it seemed that all of Ealing came to visit us, nearly 2,000 people in all.

Saturday 7th February was our first work day of the new year and the first day of our new project to sort out the hedgerow that encloses the allotments. It's a long long time since the hedgerow had been cleared and it was clear to see that a lot of rubbish and other things had accumulated over the years. What better way to start the year than a spring clean? As ever, the work was easier thanks to a bunch of volunteers both allotment holders and other members of the local community.

So, this was day two of the Radbourne Walk enhancement plan. Simon had planned another wildflower meadow - this time at the Occupation Road end of the path. We also had plans to start the loggery. We know we have Stag-horn beetles on the allotments because one of our plot holders found their larvae in his compost bin.

On Saturday morning (1st February) a group of Northfield allotment plot holders and local residents got together to put a plan into action. Luck was with them because the sun shone - not a drop of rain fell all morning.